Okay, I'm sure I will get bashed for this, but has anyone done any aerodynamic testing with a whaletail on the original Insight? For asthetic reasons and because I park in the sun, I want to mount a solar panel on the back, and would like to integrate it with a rear spoiler.
I'm thinking if I find the angle the air is currently moving, maybe there won't be too much drag from it.
What do you think? Also, asthetically I think our little cars look pretty good, except for the "petticoat" look of the rear bumper, and I think a whale tail might balance that out.
Okay, I'm sure I will get bashed for this, but has anyone done any aerodynamic testing with a whaletail on the original Insight? For asthetic reasons and because I park in the sun, I want to mount a solar panel on the back, and would like to integrate it with a rear spoiler.
I'm thinking if I find the angle the air is currently moving, maybe there won't be too much drag from it.
What do you think? Also, asthetically I think our little cars look pretty good, except for the "petticoat" look of the rear bumper, and I think a whale tail might balance that out.
Thoughts?
Cool idea. My hunch is the small lip at the edge of the kammback tail gives the aerodynamic effect of a whale tail but, why not give it a whirl?
A whaletail? Like on my old 911? Honestly? My thoughts... or rather, thought...
Now that I've got that out of my system... go right ahead...
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Driving on down the road in my 2001 CVT, going "Boogety Boogety" ...and until avatars are provided, my car looks just like the original silver Insight on the header, above... =)
somewhere on the web, there is a photo of an insight with a whale tail. It looks like a photoshop job. If I run across it again, I'll add the link. If someone else wants to search, have at it.
Ok ok
Not really a "911 style" Whaletail, a rear spolier, rear wing, etc, not hip to the proper lingo I guess....
similar to, but larger and broader than this....
Still laughing?
Ah. I see. OK, I'm down to chuckling now.
I was envisioning this:
The Insight is such an aerodynamic marvel that any appendage would probably be detrimental to its Cd... wouldn't mounting it more flush with the roof work better? Just saying...
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Driving on down the road in my 2001 CVT, going "Boogety Boogety" ...and until avatars are provided, my car looks just like the original silver Insight on the header, above... =)
Why are you creating downforce on a front wheel drive car? What I thought was a neat idea was creating up force like increase the airflow under the car to make it seem lighter then it actually is, and thus making better gas mileage. Also on the flip side creating too much upforce will flip you car over if you take aggresive turns...
Just realize why you are creating it. The Insight has the best Coefficient drag that any other car on the maket has or had...
Thanks for the response Harvir. I was mostly thinking of doing it for asthetic reasons, but I have decided just to live with the way the car looks. Creating up force at the back would not give you better mileage at all, nor would it change the mass of the car and make it seem lighter. At an extreme all it would do is unweight the back wheels at high speed making the car extremely dangerous to drive at high speed.
There is substantial room for aerodynamic improvement in the Insight. The AeroCivic achieved a Cd of 0.17 by streamlining a Cd=0.34 '92 Civic hatchback. I believe it will be possible to achieve the same or better shape (Cd=0.17, 32% reduction in highway fuel consumption, plus extending lean burn) with an Insight with less effort and shorter overall length, and I intend to do so. Here's a rough sketch of what I have in mind. It's 95cm longer than stock, which makes the car as long as an Accord.
The rear truncation is as tall as a US license plate, and leaves room for a few lamps on either side.
When a 16" tail cone was fitted to the GM EV1, the drag coefficient dropped from 0.167 to 0.153. (source)
Btw, is anyone here good with OpenFOAM?
Last edited by RobertSmalls; 02-21-2010 at 11:23 AM.
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03 Insight Whale Tail?
Ok ok
Ok ok 
